Alternative energy growth creates headache

Alternative energy is a new source of anxiety for energy officials, who worry about the effects of bringing more wind, solar and geothermal power to a grid designed for the previous century, the newspaper said.

Grid limitations will also undermine efforts by activists to move more quickly away from greenhouse-gas emitting power plants, it said.

The grid mainly exists to keep power supplies steady and predictable — and green energy is the least predictable kind. Whether or not technologies that can store renewable energy will become economically viable on a large scale is “hotly debated,” the newspaper said.

California’s public utilities commission last month ordered large power companies to invest heavily in storage technologies. Utilities have said the only guarantee is that billions will be spent. Net benefits are uncertain.

Power grid operators in some states have had to dump wind power produced on blustery days because the grid had no room for it, the newspaper said.

Officials working on system-redesign ideas say the work involves mapping and building electrical

But that’s the relatively easy part. The grid is built on a patchwork of market rules, operational formulas, and business models that make determining where and how to deploy green energy a “formidable riddle,” the article said.

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